Memory of an Encounter (Work in Progress, 2026) Nonfiction/Digital/Short Film

February 20, 1991. A plane carrying American tourists crashes into the waters of the Beagle Channel in Chilean Patagonia. Eugenio Calderón, an indigenous Yaghan fisherman, spots a woman losing consciousness in the freezing strait and pulls her to safety. The event is widely reported, but Eugenio’s participation goes unrecognized until the survivor, Caryl Dawson, returns to town with a video camera to thank him in person.

Using never-before-seen institutional footage as well as Caryl Dawson’s personal video archive, Memory of an Encounter explores the aftermath of the plane accident and the intimate reunion in which survivor and rescuer meet to reconstruct and preserve the memory of the event.

Directed by Fernando Saldivia Yáñez; Video Archive courtesy of Caryl Dawson; Oral History by Eugenio Calderón; Interview by Felipe Sasso and Fernando Saldivia Yáñez.